Final Sunday at LWC

Yesterday was my last Sunday at Living Waters. Tonight, I'll attend my last session meeting at LWC. Then, tomorrow evening we'll meet with our realtor in Florence and make final arrangements before we close on our house on Wednesday. Wednesday night, Laura and I will attend a Jubilee dinner for world missions.

Sunday was a memorable day. It was a privilege to be able to play with the band one last time and preach on God's calling in our lives. The Session very graciously gave me a going away present- a new Geneva Gown to use in my ministry at Effingham Presbyterian. My wife Laura also surprised me with a set of mugs (pictured) signed by all of our friends at LWC.

As much fun as it was to celebrate together one last time, our ultimate purpose was to worship the Lord and celebrate Him. When we celebrate in worship together, we are refreshed and renewed for the coming week. In yesterday's case, I feel renewed and refreshed for the coming years, having had a chance to be with the good folks at LWC as we celebrated what God has done at Living Waters, and what He is preparing to do at Living Waters and Effingham. The sense of a connectional spirit was palpable as we all affirmed how we are united in service for God's Kingdom no matter where we may be in that kingdom.

Hearing God's Call: Mr. See Owned a Saw

This Sunday I'll be preaching on "hearing" God's call for your life. This is a topic that we often misunderstand, so I hope it will be helpful to study. Here is a toungue twister I found while looking for a good sermon illustration. Share it with your family at dinner tonight, and remember that this Sunday is "family worship," so we'll be incorporating kids into the worship time.

Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See's saw
Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,
See's saw would not have sawed
Soar's seesaw.
So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
Just because See's saw sawed
Soar's seesaw!

PS: You can study some great scripture passages for yourself before this Sunday. Read John 16:13 and Revelation 22:18. Do these verses have anything to do with one another? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Enter

It's been 2 weeks now since we studied Psalm 100 as part of our LWC Band practice. I arrived at LWC in 2002, and a study of the Psalms was an important part of what I wanted to do each week with our artists. I honestly expected to be done by now (there are only 150 psalms), but you know how it goes...

Any way, Psalm 100 is familiar to a lot of folks because it is the source of "He Has Made Me Glad," a hymn I remember from my upbringing in the Southern Baptist Church. When we sang it, it was fast, clappy, and had a touch of saloon-style piano playing. Honestly, I've never thought much of it.

When we looked afresh at God's word the other night, though, the first word of verse 4 jumped out at me:
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations."

That one word, "Enter," says so much. Or maybe it doesn't say so much. Here's what I mean. It doesn't say:
-Wait around at his gates until you feel thankful.
-Walk through his gates and see if he makes you want to praise him.
-Ignore his gates...they won't do you any good any way.

The message here is this: We enter the gates of God's presence thankful for what he is doing; anticipating what he will do. His love "endures forever"( v. 5) There are too many Sundays where I myself enter his gates with a bad attitude, thinking "I hope God shows up today."

In reality, He's always there. God's presence if always good. He's always worthy of thanks and praise. Sadly, we're not always ready for him.

Now, each Sunday when I walk through the thick metal doors of our meeting place at Bethel Elementary School, I'm reminded to enter, not wondering what God is going to do, but looking forward to being a part of what he is already doing.

photo by Declan McCullagh

The Gift of Worship

In this month's issue of Collide Magazine (www.collidemagazine.com) Gary Molander of Floodgate Productions writes, "In our day, 'great worship' has become something that moves my heart, not something that moves his."

It's a concept as old as "Church" itself, and yet we still face this on a daily basis (or weekly basis, in terms of Sunday worship): Why do we go to worship?

The opening question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this:
Q: "What is the chief end of man?"
A: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."
This should inform our Heart of Worship as well.

My favorite portion of the article was Molander's comparison of corporate worship to being the guest at a birthday party:
"In corporate worship...competing desires show up with power and passion-- the simultaneous desires to outwardly give something, and to inwardly receieve. We bring gifts to give the celebrated birthday Boy (worship), and we end up wanting to keep these gifts for ourselves.

Your Heart of Worship

Here at LWC, David (our Lead Pastor) and I meet every Tuesday to plan our Sunday worship time. If everything is running smoothly, we plan 2 weeks in advance.

One thing that is important to us (though hard sometimes) is going over the good, bad, and ugly of the previous worship time. Sometimes, we have problems out of our control; other times we have problems because we had too much control.

My main contribution to Sunday morning comes down to music and media. David and I work to create a good atmosphere so folks can encounter God's presence.

I've been looking for some kind of evaluation tool that we could use to "rate" how well our music, media, etc. has gone. These so called "Worship Evaluations" aren't too hard to find. Rick Warren at Saddleback has a good one (http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/article.asp?ArtID=7193). Calvin College has one, too (http://www.calvin.edu/worship/planning/insights/12.php).

This one stood out from the pack, though. It was in the Sept/Oct issue of "Rev!" magazine (yes, even Reverends have their own mag). I found it again online at the Corinth UMC blog. (http://www.corinthmethodist.com/PastorsPage.dsp) It's an evaluation not of "worship," but the "worshipper." It got me wondering how I would measure up on an average Sunday:

Rank “1” as low and “5” as high. IMAGINE THIS IS GOD SPEAKING TO YOU!
___You prepared yourself for worship long before you arrived at church.
___You arrived on time for your appointment with me.
___You expressed your adoration of me with enthusiastic singing.
___You confessed your sin to me with complete honesty.
___You gave joyfully and sacrificially to the work of advancing my kingdom.
___You heard the announcements as invitations for your growth and my service.
___You humbled yourself in reverence at the reading of my Word.
___You recognized the unique Word that I prepared for you in today’s sermon.
___You gave thanks for the ways you saw me at work during the past week.
___You shared your needs in faith that I hear and can handle them.
___You opened your heart to my closing benediction.
(Adapted from Rev! Magazine Sept./Oct. 2007